As the first full weekend in theaters for Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs film comes to a close, early box office results have been disappointing, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Estimates put the film's take at $7.3 million from nearly 2,500 theaters, well below expectations and only good enough for seventh place on the weekend.
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Those backing Steve Jobs had wanted to land somewhere in the teens, but are counting on a long run throughout awards season (an A- CinemaScore should help word of mouth). Jobs is over-indexing in upscale theaters in major cities, including the Bay Area — home of Apple — but falling flat in Middle America. Two weekends ago, the $30 million movie scored the top location average of the year to date when opening in New York and Los Angeles. Through Sunday, its domestic total is $10 million.
"We're going to redouble our efforts to support these markets," said Universal domestic distribution chief Nic Carpou. "It's working great in these theaters now, and we want to make sure it continues to do so."
The film has generally received a positive reception from critics, particularly for Michael Fassbender's portrayal of Jobs. Those more familiar with Jobs' history and those closest to him have, however, been less satisfied with the film, in many cases taking issue with the way Jobs is portrayed and some of the artistic license that deviates significantly from actual events.
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(View all)I'm not sure why they decided to go personal with his daughter. You'd think that aspect of his life would have the least outside knowledge to draw from, and quite frankly his widow's strong objections to it kinda turn me off.
Aren't there more interesting stories to be told about his life? His time in India? Pixar? The iPhone era, the notion of him redeeming himself to a certain extent during the iPhone era and kick starting the always connected, extremely capable and buttery smooth computer in your pocket revolution? His dealing with his illness and possibly worrying about his legacy? His relationship with Jony and Tim?
Maybe some of those details are also sparse. He was a fairly private man. But still, I'd like to get a more complete picture. I want to see some insight into his passion. Where he draws it from. How did he become so visionary? Or is that even answerable? Something like that will probably take many more years as additional information is gathered and books are written. So yeah, I'll rent this for now and hope something more complete comes out in the future.